Settler of township lots: Lots 28, 29 & 30, Conc. 5, Stanhope

Location: Map point is the approximate location within irregular, waterfront Lot 28, Conc. 5 on the north shore at the east end of Maple Lake south of North Shore Road (Canopy Lane).

Land acquisition:

• Lot 28, Conc. 5, Stanhope: James & Catherine with son William C, age 8
  - 1875 This  lot was registered as a Free Grant through the Free Grant and Homestead Act of 1868 under the locatee name James Melville.
  - 1875 Lands Liable to Taxation: Township of Stanhope Patent Register - 45 acres to James Melville.
  - 1882 Patent from The Crown. Ontario Land Parcel Register - Stanhope (Image 253 ).
• Lots 29 and 30, Conc. 5, Stanhope:
  - 1861 & 1872 Lands Liable to Taxation: Township of Stanhope Patent Register - 71 & 96 acres to James Melville.
  - 1872 Patent from The Crown. Ontario Land Parcel Register - Stanhope (Images 253, 278 & 323).

Dates of residency:

• 1861 Census of Canada, Stanhope: 
• 1870 Peterborough County Directory, Stanhope: James Mellville, pt Lot 29, Conc. 5
• 1881 Census of Canada, Stanhope: James & Catharine Melville with Wm E Melville b. 1856 at Lots 28-30, Conc. 5.
• 1887 Death: Stanhope
• 1890 Stanhope Voters List: Catherine Mellville, owner, Lots 28, 29 & 30, Conc. 5
• 1893 Stanhope Directory: Catherine Melville, Maple Lake at Lot 30, Conc. 5. 
• 1899 Stanhope Directory: Catherine Melville, Maple Lake at Lot 30, Conc. 5.
• 1911 Catherine Melville living with Margaret (Faulkner) Smyth at Lot 32, Con 2

Other residents:

• A W Sisson:
  - 1899 Stanhope Directory at Lot 30, Conc. 5
• Fenton Bake:
  - 1901 Census: Fenton Bake and wife Catherine E. b. 1831 at which time this lot was owned by Bake's 3rd wife, Catherine Clark's nephew, George Nelson Clark
  - 1901 Voters List: Fenton Bake, carpenter, at Lot 30, Conc. 5
• Ernest Fetterly, laborer 
  - 1911 Stanhope Votes List: at s/e pt 30, Conc. 5

Interesting facts:

James Melville (1833-1877) was Stanhope's first reeve after it separated from Minden and Dysart in 1866. Source: Echoes of the Past, compiled and written by Ed H. Devitt & Nila Reynolds p. 27

Melville was Maple Lake's first postmaster and a Crown Land agent. His rig could be identified by the lazy gait of his grey mare. His wife Catherine, a sister of Benjamin Clark, was one of the first white women to set foot in eastern Stanhope. Those who remember Mrs. Melville say that when she greeted a friend, she would kiss their hand in the continental manner. Of the log home of "Granny Melville," situated opposite "Black's Fields," where the community collected its mail, nothing remains but a clump of lilacs which every year break forth in a perfumed rhapsody of blossom, though the hands which planted them are long since dust and wraith. Source: In Quest of Yesterday by Nila Reynolds. Published by The Provisional County of Haliburton, Minden, Ontario 1973 p. 302 & 303

The Maple Lake ball team, which travelled by wagon as far as Minden for games, did most of their playing on a diamond in Melville's field. Source: In Quest of Yesterday by Nila Reynolds. Published by The Provisional County of Haliburton, Minden, Ontario 1973 pg. 310

Maple Lake Post Office - 1881 to 1897: Lot 30, Conc. 5, Stanhope. James J. Melville, Stanhope's first Reeve, was Postmaster until his death in 1887, and then his wife, Catherine Melville took over the appointment. As with all early post offices, the location was the Postmaster's house.

Preceding landowner: The Crown

Succeeding landowner: 

• 1886 willed to wife Catherine Elizabeth Melville:
  - 1911 Stanhope Voters List Lots 28, 29 & 30, Conc. 5 as Catherine Melleville, widow
  - 1911 Stanhope Post Office List: C. Melleville, Maple Lake
• 1901 Benjamin Sawyer:
  - 1911 Stanhope Voters List: listed at these lots
  - 1928 Stanhope Voters List: Lot 29, Conc. 6 & Lot 30, Conc. 5

Link to Settlers of Algonquin Highlands family tree